On a cold Friday morning, about a dozen veterans from the Maine Veterans’ Home in Scarborough, Maine came to The Maine Mall to visit the Maine Garden Railway Society’s train layout and be honored.  About a dozen Society members were also present to honor the veterans.  Dick Cosgrove, Society Vice President, welcomed the veterans and thanked them for their service to our country.  It was a double celebratory event in that Jeannine Lessard, the Home’s Recreation Director, is leaving her position as of this date.  Jeannine has been escorting the veterans to Carl and Pat Churchill’s house and garden railway for many years.  She will be missed.  Carl presented to her a token of the Society’s appreciation of her association with the Society and the fine work she has done at the Veterans’ Home.

The Society also presented the veterans with several model train gifts to enhance the layout at their facility which the Society helped to set up and maintain.

A highlight of the event was a musical concert by Don Campbell accompanied by his wife Tonya Shevenell.  Don sang a medley of patriotic and holiday songs honoring the veterans’ service to our country.  He also distributed a CD of his music to the veterans.

The Mall staff, Stefanie Millette – Events Coordinator, and Craig Gorris, Mall Manager, was on hand to provide gifts and refreshments for the veterans.  Many thanks go to them for their fine efforts in making this event so successful.
After enjoying some hot chocolate and donut holes, the group posed for a picture before departing the Mall.



More on the Veterans visit

What a great Day!   The celebration for the Maine Veterans went very well.  Lots of MGRS members were on hand.  Stefanie did a terrific job organizing chairs, hot chocolate, donut holes, cup cakes etc.  Carl had all the presents wrapped and gifts ready.  Don Campbell, Maine's famous singer/songwriter was ready to do a special show for the Veterans.   Everything came off as planned as VP Dick Cosgrove made a very nice welcome speech and Carl presented Jeannine with a special gift as well as lots of nice presents for the Veterans!  A whole train with a beautiful PICO engine! 

  The Veterans had a great time and they were tapping their feet and hands to the beat of the music  as we enjoyed snacks and a good start to a very Merry Christmas!

Please click here to see more pictures and video clips of the fun. 

Thanks to all for a great visit!

Pictures from Art 11-29

Thank you Art, I am trying something a little different to see if viewers on the Blog can see this Album without being asked to "sign in".  Hopefully that will work. If you have a problem please let me know,
thank you John
To view,please click here:

Remember the Veterans visit Tomorrow morning

 Thursday, I stopped by late today and Art, Norm, Jim, Carl, Mac and James were there and even Santa brought someone over to see Thomas.  Everything was running well.  I caught up with Mac and did get a MGRS cap.  ($20)  they are embroidered and available in black and khaki.
 
I think Art has pictures from earlier today.  The only ones I took where of John and Hunk who team up for the afternoon shift.

 Here is John with his favorite Moxie car as well as two others that he brought in which are also favorites.  Hunk was making a bridge repair when I left and said he was scheduled to come back tomorrow afternoon as well. Which does remind me:  The Maine Veterans will be in tomorrow morning to visit the display.   MGRS plans to honor them as well as Jeannine who will be completing her last day tomorrow.  Please try to come by if you can.  We have gifts to present and also there will be special music as singer/songwriter Don Campbell will be performing.

Nice Hat !

Art stopped by the Mall today and Dick and Walter were there.  Everything was running fine plus Dick was sporting a new style cap with a fine looking MGRS Logo on it!

Hey we all want one of those!  I heard there is also one that is done in black.  

If you want one I guess you have to let Mac or Carl know.  I am not sure.  Will post info when I know for sure.   

Thank you Art.

Happy Tuesday

 Tuesday means "Trains" at least that's the way I remember it.   That's the nice thing about picking the same day each week to come into the Mall.

 Tiny always gets there before I do and today he had his impressive Canadian National passenger train all ready to roll when I arrived with my MEC freight hauling GP9.


                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                         
Today I met a man who has been a member for many years but we met for the first time today.

His name is Dana Jipson.   A great guy who loves
to talk trains and ended up buying a vest from Carl
as well staying most of the first shift.  He even ran everything by himself for a while!

Later, Jim Hinkley stopped by and in the afternoon John and Mike were in early to take over.  John loves Moxie and brought in his favorite car plus many others to make up a nice freight consist.

Mike and James were trading war stories down in the cafeteria on a short break.  You know one of the best things about this event is getting to know some of the guys in the Club.  It works that way every year!

Today we had some professional talent singing and they will be returning especially for the Vets visit on this Friday.  Carl invited Don Campbell and his wife back to a special performance.  Christmas music was playing, Carl and Pat stopped by to conduct a little business down at the Mall office.  Friday with the Veterans is shaping up to be a nice event.  Please try to be there if you can a little before 10:30am.

Here are a bunch of short video clips from today
Please click to view:

Nice Photos from Jeff Jacobs

John

 

Spent a few hours at the display today with Mac, Mike, Dennis and Hunk. All ran well. Following pictures are of the usual suspects and a few selected scenes. Use them if you wish. Hope to catch up with you there one day. My trips to the Mall are never preplanned, but on my next visit, I will bring the O gauge Polar Express to run.

 

regards

 

Jeff Jaocbs

 

  This is exactly what I hoped for.  Thank you Jeff, Excellent pictures!  Glad you had a good time. You were in with a great group of guys!  Yes, please bring in your Polar Express, I bet the kids will love it!

Thanks again!

To see Jim's album please click here:

 

Poor excuse but Good Ideas

  I did go in on the day after  Black Friday but I "lost" my camera,  (I later found it).  Sorry no pics.  OK, that is a poor excuse.
 But I did have a chance to wish Barry & Buckie a safe trip south.   I also picked up some interesting info!   Craig (respectfully speaking) our version of  "Sir Topham Hat" or the head man at the Mall said   "I heard your thinking of a waterfall next year"  he said approvingly.   WoW!!! I thought to myself, Waterfall and Next Year!    Two pretty big implications.    I guess Carl has been hard at work behind the scenes.  They both Sound good to me!

  Before Barry left he walked me around the layout and had two more pretty interesting suggestions.

 1.  A long point to point Trolley line that weaves it way using single tunnel portals around 3/4th of the layout.  Connecting the village and station scenes together.   We all ready have the capability it is just a matter of running the track.

2.  The second idea involved the saw mill.  It would have a small work engine moving some cars back and forth a short point to point work line.  They would pause at the sawmill and then continue on to the end of the line.  When the train returned it would automatically switch itself over to a passing siding and stop on the other side of the sawmill.   This would continue back and forth switching sides and pausing at the Mill.   Yes, an electrical challenge but it probably is something that we could do.

Black Friday

 

Here are just a couple of pictures from Black Friday.  It was crowed but not real bad.  Parking lot was full.  Art was taking pictures so I figured it only fair that I should get one of him.  Jim M and family stopped by, it was great to see them!  They are talking to Barry.  It was also great to see Barry & Buckie before they head south.  They are great members and so are their friends Ivan & Gerry who we really love and wish them both continued excellent recovery on recent health issues.  Keep up the good work and have a great winter! 
Click here for a couple more pictures and short clips from today:
Thank you:  Carl, Mac, Mike, Ben, Art, Barry & Buckie, James, John

Here is something to be thankful for!

 

 

Pictures from Wed 11/21

John and Walter made a great team as they took care of everything during the morning shift.  I saw a train Walter had the other day on the upper loop.  It was really nice looking and you can tell it was very well maintained.   

 

Carl and Dennis (and Mike) who eluded Arts photography took over the controls for the evening shift. Today things are quiet on the train set.  One day of rest before we shift into hi gear!

Thank you Art for the pictures. 

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Please enjoy the holiday and remember we still have a lot to be thankful for.

Maine Vetrans Update

  If you have ever been to a Maine Veteran's outing at Carl's you know who Jeannine is.  A wonderful person who has been a great help to the Veterans and we were very sorry to hear that Nov 30th will be her last day as a member of the staff of the Veterans Home in Scarborough.  

   But we will have a chance to thank her personally as well as honor all the Veterans that she will be bringing over to visit us at the train layout!   On Friday, Nov 30, 2012 at about 10:30 am they will arrive to visit us and to see Santa Claus as they have done the past two years we have been at the Mall. 

  If you can be there please stop by.  We want to show our appreciation to Jeannine and the Veterans and wish them all the very best and help them have a Happy Christmas Season from all of us!

11/20/12 at the Mall

Tuesday at the Mall was good.   Tiny arrived unbelievably early and had everything under control when I came in with more trains to run. We each ran two of our trains.  Carl stopped by and later Norm brought Ernie Tarbox by the layout and I enjoyed hearing his stories. Art stopped by with his camera and showed me the green status light he has wired to the Lionel transformer.  Jim arrived and answered questions from several inquisitive viewers.  Later John and Mike took over the afternoon shift.  They both are naturals talking to people.  We ended up putting the Amtrak and Walters nice little MEC back on.  Both are very popular!  

Click here for Pictures and Video Clips: 

Pictures from Stefanie

Nice job Maine Mall!

Nice job MGRS !

Thank You!!

"This is our best year so far!"

Request for photos

  If you are willing to take a  picture of who is running the layout when you stop by the Mall.  That would be a terrific assistance to me!  If you can email them to me, I will be happy to post them on the Blog for everyone to enjoy.   Thanks John.  My email is jjackso@gmail.com

Sunday Special

   Mike and Preston take over the show on Sundays.  We are lucky to have such a dedicated pair of members to pull the entire shift. Mike had the trains running by 10:30 and they will continue on to 6pm this evening!   They always keep everything under smooth control.  It is true!  I noticed the sawmill blade was not turning and mentioned it to Mike.  The next minute he is over and back and  had it running perfect!  Nice job in deed.  In fact everything was running great and there were lots of interested people enjoying the display and asking questions.  It was very good:  Here are a few more pictures and videos:  Click here to watch:

  PS: Speaking of keeping things running smoothly, Thank you Walter who was in early to make a bridge repair.  A little tweak in the right place does wonders!

Saturday Post

   I did not make it in to the Mall today to say hi to Joe who was nice enough to sign up for today.  But, I borrowed a picture from last year.   I bet Saturday was a good day to talk trains to lots of people, it seems like it is always one of our best days!  Lots of parents or grandparents with youngsters stop by.

   I did talk to Carl and a lot of other guys did show up to also help  out. Art and Ben where in and Art wired up a new signal to indicate if the Lionel display should ever have a short circuit.  Carl and Mac where in this morning and Dennis and Walter took over the controls for the evening shift.

Week-1 is all ready completed

  Time does go by fast when you are having fun.  It's hard to believe we have completed one week of this years Mall Train Show already.  I went in late today to catch the change over and get photos of everyone.  I saw Carl bringing in a fire extinguisher into the control area just in case we ever needed to have one handy.   This morning so many members showed up to help out we ended up with more then we could use.   I am sure we can work that out, it is a nice problem to have. Thank you again for all the help members do.  You are fantastic!  When I came in Tiny, Dave  James and Carl were still there and Paul, Hunk, and Grace were coming in to take over for the evening.  As usual I tried to take some pictures and quick clips.  If you would like to see todays, please click here:

   "Hi Everybody!"

 

Click to enlarge  Lionel Village

Circus Thursday plus more

  Some of the Circus Division plus Seashore Trolly Master John Middleton were all kind enough to come by to help  run trains today and to enjoy the layout and the people coming by to watch.

  Andy, Art, Norm and John shared the duties and Carl & Mac & Mike were in earlier and they did a nice job installing the sound on the Sawmill.  Sounds Great! 

Stefanie brought over our display case and Norm put in Thomas plus he added a nice display of different scale Box Cars compliments of Rainy Day Trains.

Click here for more pictures and videos of today's trains in action

Planned Changes

 I was not in the Mall yesterday, but I talked to Carl who knows of some improvements about to be made.  First is that today we may add sound to the Sawmill display!  Next, we should get a new display case very soon that we can safely display our Thomas drawing train set in.  And last, Santa complained about the sun light in the background and they put up a big curtain that did not look that good.  So, Carl had a suggested change that will be implemented to solve the problem.

  And THANK YOU to all the members and family that are helping to run trains and to wrap gifts.  Great Job!  If you have not signed up to help, please do - we are almost out of openings! 

First Tuesday at the Mall

Tuesdays are nice and quiet days.  Tiny, Dave, Art and John handled the morning shift.  We took off the Amtrak and gave it a rest.  We ran Tiny's Canadian National F3 Freight with my ME Central GP9 Freight on the main lines and Tiny's B&M RDC on the middle loop.  Carl's nice little Sandy River 0-6-0 Steam engine with it's terrific sound system ran the upper level stopping at the Gorham Station.  Art did some maintenance on the Lionel loops and had everything running great. Dave learned all the controls and did a great job talking to folks, in fact we all talked to lots of interesting people, That is for sure! 

Quick video clip-1

Quick video clip-2


Note: this does not show the fan favorites on the Interactive buttons!  There is a total of 7 buttons that control  the  Sawmill, Two Lionel trains, Signal/Crossing Gates, Circus train, Ski Lift and Thomas the Tank Engine.  

True Statement:  I have had several people say "This is the best display yet!".   All I can say is we are glad that they enjoy it.  Thank you, we hope each new season will be the best! 

 When I left Tiny was still there and Mac, Norm & Suzanne and James had arrived with Carl on the way.  I haven't  seen the layout at night yet but, I bet it looks great!  The big screen TV is on and the overview shot is very good.  See below:  Good luck to the evening crew and have a great time!

Could be Maine

It looks like Maine.  A nice little steam engine working in the forest.  But a long ways away.  Sent in by Eric:  Thanks, click here.


I have not seen them yet but here are some more:
http://youtu.be/pLj0_oISUz4
and
http://youtu.be/rKTmwtKbQ54

Downeaster Blast By Mile Post 185

WOW,  I got to see the Downeaster speed toward Freeport Me. today about 12:10pm on the Greely Rd Crossing in North Yarmouth.  It is only about a mile from our house.  Luckily, I still had Carl's camera handy so we can all enjoy it!

It took a lot longer to come into view then it did to go by.  It really was a Blast!  Please take a look: click here:

Mall Visit

My daughter and grandson stopped over to visit the display at the Mall.  Here are the pictures she took of the visit.   please click here;

Day-2 at the Maine Mall

   The Maine Mall marquee sign is up and announcing the 2012 Train Display!  . Please click here to take a look:  Thank you!

We sent this video to Nancy Norris to use for Garden Railway Magazine to help describe the event which will continue for the next 7 weeks.

Happy Veterans Day!

  A very happy Veterans Day to all especially our friends in the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough, Me.  We received a very nice card from Jeannine Lessard  who thanked us so much in behalf of the veterans that come to visit us at Carls.  She said how much they enjoy the outings, the trains, flowers, the wooded trail rides.  It is a great enjoyment to them.  Thank you MGRS members for what  you do.

 Several members, I believe Carl. Dennis, and Paul, Mac and Walter and perhaps others have been to visit recently, solve problems with their train transformers (I think we bought them a new transformer) and helped with the layout.  Again, they are very appreciative.

  Also, another pretty neat gift which Carl made on behalf of the Club was his 4 foot long model of a World War II fighter plane.  It may have been a P51 Mustang.  In any event it is proudly hung from a wire and being displayed in an area where many will enjoy it.  A nice looking model and as Jeannine told us in her card, it is appreciated by the veterans.

But, all the thanks should come from us as we appreciate what they have done.  Happy Veterans Day and Thank You!

Nancy Norris Video - Take-1

This is for Garden Railway Magazine -  I may try one more tomorrow and then pick one to send to Nancy.
Video from Opening Day MGRS 2012 Maine Mall - please click here:

The 2012 MGRS Train Show has begun!

  It has been hard work but it has been rewarding as we all pitched in to get everything operating the way we want it.  Saturday Nov 10th is here and Santa Claus has arrived and all the trains have begun to run!  We instantly draw a crow!  It is going to be a good year,  there is a lot of activity at Center Court and we are right in the center of it all!  The nice big tree which is 4 levels high plus all the snow and new designs have come together well.  Later tonight I will upload a longer video.  But for now please enjoy a few pictures on the following slide show.
Please click  here to watch:

plus some short videos:

We are almost ready to Open

Click on images to enlarge

  Just two days to go,  and the 2012 Maine Garden Railway Society Train Display will be under way!  The 3rd consecutive year at the Maine Mall in So. Portland will continue with a group of over 50 active volunteers hosting a 50 day train show which has delighted hundreds of thousands of public viewers. 

Please click here for a test video describing the event.

  Note:  I wanted to test how long,  (it took 77 mins to upload this video clip).  Not to bad I guess, the video runs 4min 40 sec.  We promised Nancy Norris a U-tube Video of Opening Day for a publishing deadline she has.  I never made a video where I tried to narrate it.  I hope this helps me make the real one come out  better. (If anyone wants to volunteer to make one, she needs it by Nov 15th).  In any event we hope you will stop by and sign up to participate in this exceptional event that is truly the highlight of our annual activities and our most significant fund raiser.  Thank you.